U.S. House Speaker Boehner dismisses talk of impeaching Obama

WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) - Republicans have no plans to
begin impeachment proceedings against President Barack Obama,
House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner declared on
Tuesday, putting the blame on Democrats for stirring up
pre-midterm election tensions in Washington.

Boehner is, however, hoping this week to pass Republican
legislation that would authorize a lawsuit, claiming Obama
overstepped his powers in ordering unilateral changes to his
landmark healthcare law known as "Obamacare."

Any such lawsuit could take years to wind through the court
system.

Meanwhile, Obama is weighing whether to take executive
action to scale back deportations of some undocumented
residents, a move that would further rachet up tensions with
Republicans, who have blocked comprehensive changes to U.S.
immigration law, insisting the president take stronger action to
stop the flow of illegal migrants.

"We have no plans to impeach the president. We have no
future plans," Boehner said in response to a reporter's
question.

He noted that it was the Democrats themselves who have been
raising the notion of a Republican impeachment effort, using it
to incite liberal voters and win campaign contributions for
Democratic candidates running for re-election to Congress in
November.

"It's all a scam started by Democrats," Boehner said.

Last week, White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer told reporters
that unilateral action by Obama on immigration reform "will
certainly up the likelihood that they (Republicans) would
consider impeachment."

Since Obama's first term, some conservative Republicans have
mused about impeachment, which would be the initial step in a
two-step process that allows Congress to remove a sitting
president.

Under the U.S. Constitution, if the House were to approve
articles of impeachment, the Senate would then have to vote on
whether to convict the president of any charges brought by the
House and thus remove him from office.

The last effort to impeach a president came in 1998 and
1999, when Republicans attempted to remove President Bill
Clinton from office on perjury and obstruction of justice
charges in connection with his relationship with former White
House intern Monica Lewinsky.

The Senate failed to achieve the two-thirds majority needed
to remove Clinton, and the episode caused enough negative
fallout to allow Democrats to win back five Senate seats in the
2000 election, wiping out a Republican majority.
(Additional reporting By David Lawder; editing by Gunna
Dickson)